BIFA Awards
box and case was weighed and measured, contents were listed, commercial invoices prepared and expected duties and taxes calculated. “It was an awesome job. We often speak of this story; we know it is these lengths we should be prepared to go to for our customers and have a successful business as a result. This is a very competitive industry; you have to be prepared to do something different and go further for the customer.” Giving back Hogg’s ethos of going the extra mile extends beyond the business to embrace local and international concerns. For example, the company launched a period poverty campaign, donating thousands of packs of sanitary products to food banks in a bid to make them accessible to all in its hometown of Hartlepool. “You do not always think of sanitary products when you think of poverty. We truly believe it is not something that should hold back any female in education or careers. We also called on businesses to #pledgetoendperiodpoverty and offered to give them their fi rst baskets free, with over 30 local businesses joining so far,” Lyndsay Hogg con fi rmed. Clearly very focused on women’s rights, she noted that logistics is still a male-dominated industry, “but that is changing – and anyway, it does not make a difference as long as you know your job. People receive you the same no matter what gender you are.” Further a fi eld, Hogg organised a relief effort for the people of Ukraine, sending 10 trucks of medical supplies that were donated to its of fi ce. The scale of the project, which saw local volunteers helping to pack, sort and list all the items, led to Hogg taking over all the empty units in the building. Furthermore, she said, “it helped so many people on our doorstep to integrate back into society after COVID-19. The community spirit was amazing. “It does not always have to be about business: if you have got the skills to help others, it is nice to do it. I am a strong believer of that.”
Hogg Global won the first King’s Award for Enterprise in the whole Northeast of England
Taking a big-hearted approach to business
BIFA Extra Mile Award winner Hogg Global Logistics is a small family business that goes out of its way for its customers – and it does not stop there.
A s borders closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, many foreign students left the UK, travelling home with only a suitcase full of belongings. Many left behind the majority of their possessions, believing they would soon return. However, that turned out not to be the case, and when a medical university needed to return students’ belongings to them, it turned to Hogg Global Logistics for help. Remembering that initial phone call, Lyndsay Hogg, managing director at the Hartlepool-based company, said: “Hearing the distress in the lady’s voice we agreed to help her get the belongings back to each student as the university was contractually obliged to do. She told us many forwarders had already turned down the job. “We were taken to a storage unit that was piled high with suitcases and boxes – enough to fi ll at least three 40 ft containers.” With over a thousand individual items having to be delivered, duty paid, to different addresses around
the world, fi nding an agent or carrier to take on the job proved impossible – so Hogg was left with only one alternative. “We overwhelmed the local courier depot!” Lyndsay Hogg said. In order to ship each item this way, the company hired extra staff. Each
Above: Lyndsay Hogg: It does not always have to be about business: if you have got the skills to help others, it is nice to do it.
Extra Mile Award
Descartes gives international freight forwarders and shippers a single Customs Platform to import and export freight across international borders. Descartes’ customs, freight and transport management software is used by most of the major forwarders and shippers in the UK to optimise speed of entry with single data entry for multiple countries, boosting productivity and improving data accuracy.
16 | April 2024
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